ABB isn’t satisfied with the $9-billion-and-counting it has spent buying companies over the past few years. CEO Joe Hogan said the Swiss grid giant is still looking to acquisitions to “fill blank spots in automation and industrial control technology,” Reuters reported Monday.

While Hogan didn’t get into specifics, that sounds like ABB wants to move into the smart building space. We’ve seen competitors like Schneider Electric, Siemens and General Electric buying up parts and pieces of the overall grid architecture as it extends into buildings -- industrial motors and controls, low and medium-voltage building power equipment, and networks and software to control it all.

We’ve also seen a host of new managed platforms to link buildings to utilities in different ways, both from the giants in the space and from startups like Viridity Energy, Verisae, SCIEnergy, BuildingIQ or Powerit Solutions, which are bringing new building energy analysis and control technologies to market.

ABB has earmarked $9 billion to $18 billion for acquisitions over the next five years, but Hogan didn’t name any targets, though he ruled out rumors of a bid for U.S. controls giant Rockwell. In January, ABB bought low-voltage equipment maker Thomas & Betts for $3.9 billion, giving it a window into industrial power systems. Counting that buy as part of its five-year goals, that would leave $5 billion to $14 billion left to be spent.

ABB is already a giant in grid gear like transformers, switches, reclosers, capacitor banks and the like, as well as the software to manage them. But it, along with competitors, is busy buying up both established, specialty power companies and startups with new smart grid technology and software.

As for investments, ABB has put money into data center efficiency software startup Power Assure and plug-in car charging startup ECOtality, both involving future nodes -- data centers and plug-in charging stations -- that will need lots and lots of electricity over the coming years.

While ABB has moved from the grid into buildings, French power giant Schneider Electric has come from the opposite direction. Already a top contender in building management system (BMS) infrastructure, it bought the distribution grid assets of fellow French power giant Areva, and bought Spanish grid network and software player Telvent for $2 billion last year, bringing it a long list of utility customers and smart grid technologies.

Siemens, of course, is a giant in both grid and buildings. While it was slower to start acquiring companies in the smart grid, that changed in December when it bought smart meter data management software provider eMeter for an undisclosed sum. It followed that up with grid router manufacturer RuggedCom for $381 million in February. Siemens had about 18.5 billion euro ($27 billion) in cash as of this summer, giving reason to suspect it may go shopping again soon.

Where do we see the fruits of these acquisitions? The first may be in integrated products. Utilities operate a bewildering array of incompatible, legacy technology platforms, and spend as much as half or more of their overall software budgets on the task of integrating new platforms into all those existing systems. Anything that lowers that cost -- whether it be by closely-knit tech partnerships or in-house integration -- will be welcomed by utilities.